The Interwar Period
by Alex-olo-gy
Summary: The Maverick Wars are over, and X has made a life for his own running the city of Arcadia. However, X still needs to watch his back, for past and current experience has taught him that even during times of peace anything can and will happen, fate loyally abiding by Murphy's Law. *May contain mature themes at times; chapters will be marked with warnings if they are present.
1. Chapter 1

The great Mega Man X: slayer of Mavericks, hero of Light, the only one able to stand up to and defeat Sigma eight times over…

Had just been bested by a five-year-old.

The little blue-haired girl managed to sweep him while his back was momentarily turned, flooring him. Zero taught her well, it seemed. After all, self-defense was important, even during these times of peace. There could easily be a few Mavericks missed by the Mother Elf, along with some remnants of Repliforce who were none too happy with General's downfall, holding a grudge even after all these years.

Hell, even the occasional run-of-the-mill bully or child abductor needed to watch out, because 5-year-old Leviathan "Levi" Light had won the sparring match and was a force to be reckoned with!

"Daddy, I won! I won!~ Are you prouda me?" Levi chirped, huge sapphire blue eyes positively brimming with happiness.

"Yeah honey…" X got up, rubbing the new sore spot on his back. "I am."

"Yaaaaaaayyy!" She started bouncing up and down, giggling. X couldn't help but give a fatherly chuckle at his little daughter's joy.

The relatively sweet moment, however, was interrupted by annoyed children's shouting echoing from down the hallway.

"DAAAAAD!"

X inwardly groaned. He knew exactly what this was about, but put on a caring facade. Forcing a smile, he spoke.

"Yes son? What's the matter?'

"Harpy _poked_ me!" a voice whined from within the hallway's depths.

"Oh come on bro! You're a combat model reploid and you're complaining about a little poke?" Another (smug) voice replied.

"You used your plasma blade, moron! (DX)"

"Okay, 1. It's a sonic blade and 2. SO? What're you gonna do? Smash me like the _hulking brute_ you are? (;D)"

"...Great idea! (:D)"

"! (8)"

And then a cacophony of sounds erupted from the hallway. A CRACK! here, a SHWOOM! there, followed by the occasional THWAP! or BWANG!...

X got up and decided that he'd try to nip this one in the bud, futile as it may be. As he was about to march over there and give those kids a piece of his mind, something stopped him. Physically. By clinging to his leg.

"Daddy…?"

X looked down only for his green eyes to meet Levi's blue. Her eyes were watery and her bottom lip was quivering. Cue a heart-meltingly cute whimper.

"*sniff* Pwease make big bwother Harpy and Feffy stop fighting, Daddy. It's not nice! 'Cause we're family and we're all supposed ta love each other…" Here Levi sniffled again. "...and they're fighting an' hurting each other and calling each other meany things and...a-and-" The poor, sweet little girl was dangerously close to bursting into tears.

X patted his daughter on the head soothingly. "It's all right Levi. Please don't cry. You're too pretty to cry. I'm sure that your brothers will stop fighting very soon."

"H-How Daddy?...(;.;)" Levi looked confused.

"Take a listen in the hallway now." X glanced to the hall, where the noises had suddenly stopped in favor of a new voice sternly reproaching the two other children.

Then, out of the shadows of the unlit hallway, a boy appeared dragging two younger boys along behind him. He had dark purple hair that stuck up in the back. A pair of folded bangs framed his face; the entire hairstyle made him vaguely resemble Sasuke. He wore an old red scarf around his neck, and had dark eyes that exuded seriousness and maturity beyond his years. This was 12-year-old Phantom Light.

In Phantom's right hand, held captive by the collar of his shirt, was a boy with seafoam green hair. A large angular bang obscured one eye, and the ends of his hair stuck up to the sides, giving a somewhat winglike impression. His expression, while arrogant and childish (much like his personality), hid a child prodigy that had skipped two grades prior. He was Harpuia Light, age 10.

In Phantom's left arm a large boy with tanned skin and an athletic body for his age was being restrained. His crimson red hair was short, but stuck out in spikes in all directions. His burning red eyes reflected his boisterous personality and temper. His name was Fefnir Light, ten years old just like his fraternal twin.

Phantom spoke up. "Father, I've stopped my brothers' quarreling, if that pleases you"

"Parents' pet." Harpuia huffed.

"Thank you son." X said, ruffling his eldest son's dark hair. "Heh, you're almost more of a father to these kids than I am!" It was indeed true that Phantom often watched over his siblings when X and his wife were gone, which was often due to the ongoing postwar rebuilding efforts courtesy of the former Maverick Hunters.

Suddenly, there was a knocking at the door.

"Come in, it's unlocked!" X called.

"Sup X?" someone responded from the doorway.

"Oh Zero!" X said, pleased to see his friend. "I was wondering when you'd get here…"

"I got held up with something. Namely, Axl." Zero came up the stairs, impossibly long blonde hair swaying and jerking behind him.

"Oh… What did he do this time? Did he pull the one prank with the candy bar and the-"

"YOU SAID THAT WE'D NEVER SPEAK OF THAT AGAIN." Zero irritably interrupted.

"S-sorry...(-.-;;)"

"You'd better be…(;()"

Suddenly (again), a tiny blue blur sped into the room and pounced upon Zero with a surprise hug ambush.

"Uncle Z! Uncle Z!~" Levi trilled joyfully, still clinging around Zero's neck.

"Hey there Levi! Nice to see ya!" Zero responded with a huge grin. "Say, ready to train again today? This time I brought a surprise!"

Levi gasped and her eyes went wide. She loved surprises! Unless it was the type of "surprise" that Harpy would hook up to a tripwire in Fefnir's doorway that ended with Mommy and Daddy getting angry and a yucky smell lingering behind.

But still, surprises!

The high pitched squee was just about enough to confirm Levi's response to Zero's proposition. She was bouncing on the balls of her feet again, little hands clasped together and her face alight with curiosity and innocent joy. She ran after to the training room, giggling madly with glee.

X sighed, both out of relief and exasperation. Oh, how things had changed for the better with the ending of the Maverick Wars. The Mother Elf. The peace. Meeting his girlfriend and subsequently marrying her. And especially his four beautiful children coming into the world. The mature Phantom, the schemer Harpuia, the athletic Fefnir, and the ever so sweet and innocent Levi.

Ah yes, life was great. It was as if fate had finally decided to reward our intrepid blue hero for his tireless fighting for the greater good.

X stifled a yawn. He did feel rather drowsy. Perhaps a nap would be in order. He made his way to the sofa, eyelids prematurely threatening to flutter shut. As he drifted off, X dreamt of a distant memory from years ago…

How this all came to be.


	2. Señor Buttchin

_June 16, 22XX- Maverick Hunter Base_

At that moment in time, X's life sucked.

There were Maverick reports nonstop, giving him no rest whatsoever. He was currently counting 3 days without any sleep. However, between his neglected battle wounds and low energy, there was something that pained X far more.

Zero was gone.

Zero had admitted himself into a high-end research institution when he regained his memories of his creation 200 years ago in another one of his freak dreams. To his horror, he also realized that he was the original main carrier of the Maverick Virus (hence the name Zero, as in Patient Zero).

It didn't stop there. the nanites that comprised his bloodstream and organs were the same type of nanites that allowed the virus to become air or water borne. In a sense, he _was_ the virus, and by proxy the instigator of the Maverick Wars. However, he still remained hopeful that the war could end. That the scientists at the institute could be able to reverse-engineer a cure from his body and end the long, bloody conflict that he had inadvertently started.

The revelation had crushed both of them.

X woke up to a dull blue-gray plaster ceiling, peppered with chips and cracks. There were pipes snaking about and the occasional vents popping up from seemingly random places. The air smelled sterile and reeked of medicine and oil.

_Looks like I'm in the med bay again. Well damn._

"X...a..k..g..dn...s…" X groggily blinked, trying to make out the voice that echoed near his face. A bit too close to his face, actually. Hadn't it ever heard of personal space?

"X...c..n...yo….ear...e..?" That face was even closer now. X could see that it was rimmed with blonde. _Rimmed... with blonde_. That most certainly was a valid phrase in the English language.

"X!" The voice (X could now tell it was a she) was starting to get testy.

"Nnghh…" Why was the voice even there? It was violating his personal space and he just wanted to go back to sleep and _screw everything else._

SMACK! A sharp pain stung X's face, courtesy of a hard slap. It kept repeating itself until the voice suddenly became loud.

"GODDAMIT X WAKE THE FUCKING HELL UP NOW OR ELSE I WILL PERSONALLY GO TO THE STORAGE ROOM AND CASTRATE YOU WITH A VICE!"

X's vision finally snapped into focus after a few moments of shock.

"Hi Alia. That was painful." Alia in turn blushed in embarrassment from her little outburst.

"S-sorry." she stammered. "I was just so worried about you, and well… I just sort of lost my marbles there."

"Ssss'alright" X slurred. "So… why am I here again?"

"You passed out. Damn, I have no idea how you lasted three days, what with no sleep and all those wounds. That hole in your abdomen was pretty badly infected…"

Now for a lesson in Reploid Biology 101. Many modern viruses were carried by nanites that in turn carried the virus coding itself. They behaved much like human viruses. The reploid body reacted similarly to a human's: it would raise its internal temperature to attack and kill the heat vulnerable nanites in case of illness.

The virus nanites could take material from reploid nanomachines to build new nanites, and the reploid's body would in turn release defense nanited to kill the virus carriers. The virus nanites tended to clog around the orifice from which they entered, so most of the fighting between the body and the virus would be held there. The resulting collateral damage irritated the area and provided crevices in which virus survivors could hide and multiply again, resulting in an "infection".

Meanwhile, the anesthetic used to put X under (because shutting down the body would also shut down the virus defenses, thus giving the virus free reign over the reploid) while the medical team closed and disinfected his wounds were composed of specialty nanites that stored and released an electronic code impulse known as ADN. The nanites would target certain ADN receptors in the CPU and release their payload.

Much like the connection between adenosine and its respective receptors in the human brain, the absorption of ADN caused drowsiness (bizarrely enough, the addition of caffeine does exactly the same thing as it would do to a human brain: it blocks off ADN. The alert center of the CPU in turn sees the clogged flow as a problem and releases adrenaline, resulting in hyperactivity and alertness). Reploid CPUs naturally produced ADN signals in order to enable sleep mode, but large amounts of ADN such as in the anesthetic would cause a lapse of consciousness and numbness over the entire body.

Heh, reploids really were getting to be just like humans.

After the excess ADN cleared away from X's systems. one thing became clear to him. The hot blonde girl that he had a crush on ever since the Gate incident was actually _worried_ about him! This made X excited, and as you all know excitement puts stress on one's body.

As a result, X was passed out again in no time.

Fan-_freaking_-tastic.

A few hours and needles later, X was up and about the base once more. At the moment, it appeared that he was just in time, for a mission debriefing was to be held for all active hunters. X sighed. He was not looking forward to this. Especially when it reminded him of Zero, who attended the last meeting…

_In front of the massive projector settled within the Control Room's floor, Signas stepped onto the podium, an air of professionalism, seriousness, and… worry? on his face._

"_Hunters." he declared. "As you all know the Maverick readings since the Giga City incident have been skyrocketing." X mentally cringed at the mention of Giga City, the betrayal of Spider still fresh on his mind. "However, our navigators have been able to identify a pattern in the various incidents."_

_This piqued the hunters' interest. Maverick attacks were usually wild and erratic, and didn't have a particular pattern other than spreading outwards due to the virus multiplying…_

_Unless they had a leader._

_A strong sense of dread settled over X's war-worn heart, while Zero had what can only be described as a "here we go again…" look on his face. Axl, standing on his toes at the back of the crowd, just looked excited, trigger happy, and vaguely insane at the prospect of going on a new mission. After all, he was a hero!_

"_We believe that if the Mavericks are being directed by a leader, then the pattern of attacks points out that they're after a particular district of warehouses in West Arcadia." The projector suddenly flickered to life, showing the aforementioned area. "Among these warehouses lies a storage silo of a new prototype energy source to be shipped and tested." The projector flashed, changing the image to a 3-D hologram of a pale blue-green crystalline structure._

"_This," Signas declared, "Is a new supercell fuel source known as an energy crystal, or E-crystal for short. If the simulations are correct, then consumption of E-crystals results in a higher rotor-efficiency rate, increased circo-vitality and of course extra energy." A collective murmur of awe emerged from the group of hunters._

_Axl gave a low whistle. "That has to be the most interesting and relevant string of techno-babble I've ever heard." His opinion was awarded by a knock to the back of the head courtesy of Zero. Signas ignored this and continued._

"_Due to the vast potential of these experimental E-crystals and the attack history including theft of high grade ceratanium components, we believe that the individual orchestrating these attacks is after a heavy-duty fuel source to power a machine of some kind, most likely a superweapon."_

"_Who could it be?" A random hunter in the back known simply as Rickshaw asked. Everyone else turned towards him,collectively glaring daggers._

"_Take a wild guess." Zero said, quoting the late Split Mushroom. Rickshaw blinked in surprise, before realization slowly set in._

"_Ohhh… Señor Buttchin?"_

_Insert awkward silence. Then Axl's hyenalike laughter. Zero walked up to Rickshaw and put a hand on his shoulder._

"_Dude, if you ever get a chance to go up to the front lines and actually say that to his face, then I will literally be your bitch for the rest of forever. But seriously, how did you not immediately know it was Sigma? I dropped out of high school and I even figured it out…"_

"_He's a newbie. Give him a rest, man." Axl piped, weaving his way to the front of the room._

"_Kid, nobody likes you." Zero replied. "Even after your balls miraculously dropped and your voice stopped sounding like a prepubescent Justin Beiber."_

_That pissed him off. With an indignant snarl, Axl pounced at Zero's throat, or would have if he wasn't being held back by a single finger._

"_Ha! Try all you want, kiddo. I'm an SA-class hunter for a goddamned reason, you know." Zero responded._

_Eventually X broke those two idiots up. Zero clearly never thought very highly of Axl, the apparent village idiot of the hunter base. It didn't help that Axl was notorious for stealing other hunters' lunches from the fridge, including Zero's one not-so-fine day. That meant certain death by any standard._

_The meeting droned on. Blah blah, Mavericks. Blah blah stop Sigma blah blah._

X sighed, ending his reverie upon entering the command room. Zero told him about the sealing right after that, and how it couldn't be stopped. It brought stinging tears to his eyes, though he dared not to play back the memory in his mind. It wouldn't do to have the current greatest Maverick hunter in existence to suddenly break down sobbing in front of everyone, after all.

He noticed two seconds too late that Axl had closed the fridge and made off with his lunch again. Yep, his life certainly was hell.


End file.
